Mark 5

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Through the Bible. It's a wonderful day to be in God's word. Now on the Bible bus, we're going to be traveling through the early chapters of the Gospel of Mark, following in Jesus' footsteps and then witnessing his power firsthand. In Mark chapter 5, we're going to see him do what only God can do, cast out demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead. As Dr. J. Vernon McGee often reminds us, Mark presents Jesus as the man of action, and we're about to see that on full display. Before we get to our study though, here's a letter from a fellow traveler. His name's Mike, and he shared what God's doing in his life. It's a little longer than what I would normally read, but I know you're going to love it. He writes, I've been listening for about 5 years now, and I can honestly say I have learned more from going through the word with you than at any other time in my life. The way you walk, listeners, through the whole counsel of God's word has given me both clarity and confidence. It has helped me not only understand the gospel, but to begin putting it into practice daily. I think Dr. McGee might say, put it into shoe leather. I love reading the word, hitting play, and then soaking it all in. As someone who still feels like a beginner in many ways, it's deeply comforting to know I'm being guided steadily through the entire Bible. I retired from the Navy in 2023 after 20 years of service. Years ago in 2005 while serving on my first ship, I was given a bronzed dung beetle as a going away gift from our executive officer. It may sound unusual, but it carried a meaningful message about steady, faithful work, and it stayed with me. Recently in retirement, I wrote a little book inspired by that beetle. What began as a lighthearted idea gradually grew into something much deeper. As I wrote, I kept seeing connections to the gospel. I found myself cutting out the silly jokes and wrestling with the pull between earthly treasure and heavenly treasure, between striving and grace, and between earning and simply turning to Christ. Along the way, I found myself happily including a few quiet heartfelt nods to the ministry that has meant so much to me. One character is inspired by Enoch and the story that Dr. McGee shared while teaching Genesis 5. When I heard that message again recently on your program, it genuinely moved me to tears of joy and made me want to write to you all and say thank you. My wife and I feel blessed to support the ministry monthly. We are genuinely joyful to support the Bible bus, and we hope our support will only grow over time. I'm currently following along again from Genesis, journaling through the program this time. I'm reading God's word first and then writing the scripture on the right side of my journal in ink and then making observations, insights, and applications on the left side of the journal in pencil. This read the word, then write the word, then listen to Dr. McGee go through the word process has been so edifying, and Lord willing, I will have done the whole word like this in 5 years. Thank you for your faithfulness and keeping this ministry grounded in the truth of God's word and for continuing to share it with the world in such a clear, warm, and enduring way. Wow. Mike, thanks so much. Not only for your faithful support of this ministry, we do love hearing how God's word is taken root in your life. And you know, I especially appreciate your simple rhythm. You read the word, you write the word, you listen to the word. I think many of our fellow passengers on the Bible bus will want to give that a try. And Mike, keeps sharing God's truth through your writing. It's encouraging to hear how God's using your gifts to scatter the seed of his word into new places. Let's pray. Father, thank you for using your word to draw us near. And as we study, help us to see Jesus more clearly and to trust him more fully. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Let's turn to Mark 5 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, we have probably the most important chapter in the Gospel of Mark. And I'm sure that some of you are beginning to smile now because I think that I say that about every chapter that we study, that it's the most important one. And it is when we're studying it, but this one is important. The Gospel of Mark is the Gospel of action. More of the miracles are given in this gospel than any other. And so we have three outstanding miracles that are here that only could be performed by the hand of omnipotence. For instance, here are the three greatest, if I were permitted to pick them out. The casting out of the demons out of the man living in Gadara among the tombs. And then he heals the woman with an issue of blood, and he raises the little daughter of Jairus. Here we have something that I think is remarkable in this chapter. Now let's notice first here, and I've made this division. Jesus cast demons out of a man in Gadara. And that's the first 20 verses. And then Jesus contacts the woman with an issue of blood who touched him. And 21 to 34. And then Jesus consoles Jairus at the news of his daughter's death, and he goes to raise her from the dead. Then that's from 35 through 43, the remainder of the chapter. Now let me say just a word today about demon possession. We promised on several occasions in Matthew and when we began Mark that we would have something a little bit more detailed to say concerning it. And this is the place because when we come to this man and let me read now Mark's description of him. They came over into the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. And I think I ought to say something about the Gadarenes. You see, he taught on the other side. He given these parables. He was weary, and they crossed over. But when they crossed over, why they were met by this desperate man. But let's notice now, the Gadarenes were the inhabitants of Gadara. And this is the land that was given to the tribe of Gad on the east side of Jordan. You remember, Gad chose the wrong side of Jordan. They were the ones that stayed on the east side. And now we find them in the pig business. You see, when you start away from God, you can just keep going away from him. Now will you notice this? And when he was come out of the ship, immediately they met him out of the tombs, a man. Now he's a human being. That's first of all. Write that down. He's a human being. He's in desperate condition, but he's still a man. And that's what the Lord Jesus saw, a man. In spite of his condition, Jesus saw a man. And his conduct suggests by the way that the man was a maniac also. And notice what it says here concerning him. They met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind him. No, not with chains because that he'd been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him and the fetters broken in pieces. Neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. Now notice that this is a desperate case. And he's possessed with this unclean spirit. Now will you notice? He dwelt, which means he settled down among the tombs. Here's where he lived. This was his ghetto. And the tombs were unclean places. The dead were there, and sometimes bodies exposed. He no longer enjoyed society of normal man. He lived among the dead. And we find from the other gospels there was another man, and he was no companion to him. You see, the dead were no company to him. He was alone. But he possessed, we're told here, a superhuman power. They couldn't bind him. And just because a man, friends, demonstrates power which is not natural, that doesn't prove that God gave it. This case is a typical example. He was a wild man, and no one could bind him. Now we read here that he was miserable. He suffered great physical harm which he did to himself. He's a creature of pathos and pity. And on the human plane, he's a hopeless case crying out. He's inarticulate. What an awful condition, and all due to demon possession. And we're told here but when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him. That's the man that worshiped him, not the demons, and cried with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God, most high? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. And he said unto him, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. Now will you notice? This man, not the demons, worshiped Jesus. He was afraid of Jesus. He suffered, I think you would call it spiritual schizophrenia, a split personality. Sometimes it's the man, and sometimes it's the demon speaking. And in verse 7, we find that literally it is, what is there to me and thee? What have we in common? You see, this poor man possessed by demons. Now Jesus commanded the demons to come out. And before they came out, Jesus asked the man his name. And I want you to notice that he cried with a loud voice here in verse 7, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high? Verse 8, for he said unto him, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, what is thy name? And he answered saying, my name is Legion, for we are many. And notice that, but it's not bad grammar. He says, my name. That seems to indicate the man was trying to speak, but the demons took over and said, we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there were nigh unto the mountain a great herd of swine feeding, and all the demons besought him saying, send us into the swine that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out, entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. There were about 2,000, and they were choked in the sea. Now this is something that tremendous that's being given to us here. And the demons made a very peculiar request. They preferred swine to the abyss. And the permission of Jesus has been, as you well know, severely criticized by the liberals. Their objection has been that he would not destroy the swine as the gentle Jesus wouldn't do things like that. That's nonsense of course. I was having breakfast in Chicago with a man who had gone into liberalism, and I'd known him in school and he'd been sound then. And he was talking about, you know, you take Jesus was one of the flower children, the way he described him and all that sort of thing, and he used this illustration. He didn't believe Jesus would destroy swine, and he thought that was terrible. Well, to begin with, these people of course shouldn't have been in the pig business. The Mosaic law forbade it. And then this fellow I reminded him about the fact that there were 2,000 pigs destroyed here, and apparently there were more pigs than that destroyed at the time of Noah. And the interesting thing, we were having breakfast together, and he had bacon. Oh my. May I say to you, I said to him, I said, I wish the little piggy was here that you eating part of him this morning to tell you what he thinks of you for you weep like the walrus and the carpenter. And remember, they just kept on eating the oysters. So they wept because there was a lot of sand, but not because they were eating the oysters. They wept for the wrong thing. And I think we have a lot of that type of thinking about us today. Now let me come back and say something about this matter of demon possession. First of all, there's several facts concerning demons that need to be stated. Not only Mark, but all of scripture bears a definite witness to the reality of demons. For those who accept the authority of scriptures, there must be an acceptance of the reality of demons, their reality. And by the way, we're living in a day right now where we beginning to see a resurgence and a manifestation of demonism again. I think many illustrations could be given today. Now the second thing we need to say is they were especially evident during the ministry of Jesus, but they were not confined of course to that period. Then the third thing for some strange reason they seek to indwell mankind. They seek to manifest their evil nature through human beings, and they're extremely restless. This description is clear. Luke in his account says this, when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest. And finding none, he saith, I will return unto the house whence I came out. Isn't this not characteristic of all evil, even evil man? There is the restlessness of seeking expression of the evil nature. Good spirits never seek to take possession of man. The Holy Spirit is the one exception, and he only indwells believers. But as truly as he indwells believers, demons can possess the unsaved, but they could not possess the saved. We're told greater is he that's in us, the Holy Spirit, than he that's in the world, Satan. And therefore a child of God could not be demon possessed. Now another thing we should say, the fourth thing in this incident, the demons would rather go into a herd of swine than into the abyss. That's interesting. And then the fifth thing, they should be called demons and not devils. And there's only one devil in our translation, of course, is faulty. And I made the change as I read. They're called unclean spirits because of their nature. And then the sixth thing, scripture does not give us the origin of them at all. And anything I would say today would be highly speculative. The seventh thing is there seems to be many of them. The eighth thing is they are under the control of Satan. Now I said I would not speculate, but here I go. I'm of the opinion at the fall of Satan, these were the angels that followed him. Now having said that, let's not say anymore. And the ninth thing we should say is their purpose is the final undoing of man. They are certainly working on Satan's program. The 10th thing we should say is there are present day examples of demon possession. We've mentioned that before. We could offer many illustrations of that. We have Satan worship right here in Southern California. And there are a lot of college students and professors that are in it. And they say they find reality in it. I think they do by the way. I think Satan's prepared to give reality to those who will worship him. But what kind of reality do you find? No, that is the important thing. Then the 11th and final thing is the Lord Jesus Christ has power over demons. And that I think is the great lesson for us to learn. There's no reason for any believer to be afraid of demons or to adopt some superstitious or spooky notion concerning them. If you feel like that you are bothered with them, then just ask the Lord Jesus to deliver you. They have been cast out in his name, and it's a lack of faith for you to walk in fear today of them. And it means that you certainly need a little counseling if you've got to the place where you think that they can control you in any way or possess you or direct you. There's a very lovely poem written by Joseph H. Odell about this. And you know that the people of Gadara came and asked the Lord Jesus to leave their coast. And the reason it was, they'd rather have swine than have him. And that's a rather heart searching question for the present day because there a lot of people would rather have other things that are just as bad as pigs than to have Christ. Listen to this poem now. Rabbi, begone. Thy powers bring loss to us and ours. Our ways are not as thine. Thou lovest man. We, swine, all get thee hence, omnipotence, and take this fool of thine, his soul. What care we for his soul? What good do us that thou hast made him whole since we have lost our swine? And Christ went sadly. He had wrought for them a sign of love and hope and tenderness divine. They wanted swine. Christ stands without your door and gently knocks. But if your gold or swine the entrance blocks, he forces no man's whole. He will depart and leave you to the treasure of your heart. No cumbered chamber will the master share, but one swept bare of cleansing fires, then plenish fresh and fair with meekness and humility and prayer. There he will come. Yet coming even there, he stands and waits and will no entrance win until the latch be lifted from within. What a remarkable incident this is. It reveals his power. Now we have here the Lord Jesus healing this woman with an issue of blood and then connected closely with it is the raising of the daughter of Jairus. Now let me read verse 21. And when Jesus was passed over again, now he returns back to his land by ship unto the other side. Much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea. And behold, I come with one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name. And when he saw him, he fell at his feet, besought him greatly saying, my little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray thee come and lay thy hands on her that she may be healed and she shall live. And Jesus went with him, and much people followed him and thronged him. And a certain woman which had an issue of blood 12 years and had suffered many things of many physicians. Dr. Luke, who was a physician, said she couldn't be healed, but Mark says that she'd suffered many things of the physicians and it spent all that she had and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. You see this matter of medical expense being so great today is not new at all. Verse 27, when she had heard of Jesus, she came in the press behind and touched his garment, for she said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And then you have this incident of the fact he says, who touched me? And the disciples said, who touched you? Or the whole crowd was here touch you. But only one touched him in faith for healing. He's like that today. I think we got a lot of folks. There's some of us call them the Jesus boys. They're running around saying today, yes, it's Jesus this and Jesus that. And they use this name. And somebody says, well, they certainly know him. Well, they've touched him, but not like this woman touched him. She touched him for healing. And she had been in this condition 12 years. And do you notice that the little girl was 12 years old? 12 years of suffering coming to an end and 12 years of light entering darkness now, the darkness of death. And I think the father who had come saw our Lord talking to this woman, dealing with her. And he says, oh, why doesn't he hurry? Doesn't he know that my little girl is so sick at home and that she'll die unless he moves? Well, our Lord purposely did not move. He healed this woman. And then while he's dealing with her, that incident is transpiring, a servant came from the home of this ruler of the synagogue and whispered to him. And what he said to him was this, you just let the master alone. No use talking to him. The little girl is dead. And the Lord Jesus said, well, only believe. And now he goes to the home. And there were those there who didn't believe, and they had them put out, you will recall. And when they were put out, why then he went in. And it says verse 41, he took the damsel by the hand and said unto her, which is being interpreted, damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And I still think that it was an expression in the Aramaic that the little girl would have understood. It was her native tongue. I think it could be translated like this. Little lamb, wake up. That's what he said to her. And that's a sweet lovely thing. I don't know about you. You'll find our Lord raised a little girl, a man of middle age that is in the vigor of young manhood, the widow's son of Nain, and then an elderly man, a senior citizen, a Lazarus. And he raised them all the same way he spoke to them. But this little girl represents the little folks, the ones I think before they reached the age of accountability and he said to her in his lovely way, wake up little lamb. And now I know right now I'm speaking to a lot of folks that have lost little ones. I found that out when we lost our first little one, and what a sad thing it was for us. And it's wonderful to meet and know that one of these days he's going to speak again and he'll say, little lamb. He'll be talking to my little lamb and to your little lamb and he'll say, wake up. Wake up, little lamb, and we'll have them someday. What a beautiful, wonderful thing this is. To demonstration of his power, we are told here in verse 42, straightway the damsel arose and walked, for she was of the age of 12 years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. He charged them straightly that no man should know it and commanded that something should be given her to eat. And isn't that practical? What do you think about a 12 year old girl or boy for that matter when they are waked up from sleep and now made whole? What do they want to do? They want to eat. He said, feed the little one. How practical this is and how wonderful it is. Here are these three great miracles that to my judgment demonstrate the great message of the Gospel of Mark that he's God's servant and with God's power and he's a man of action and he's come not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. And here you have him in this chapter here doing three wonderful things. He casts out demons out of the man in Gadara. He heals the woman with an issue of blood. And he raises this little daughter of Jairus, a little 12 year old girl. So until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
Steve Schwetz: Yes, Jesus is doing wonderful things both in the pages of scripture and in the lives of people all around the world. To share what God is teaching you as you travel through the Gospel of Mark, would you write and tell us? Drop us a note in our app, email your story to [email protected] or write to box 7100, Pasadena, California 91109. In Canada, box 25325, London, Ontario N6C 6B1. You can also leave a message at 1-800-65-BIBLE. And as the Bible bus rolls on through Mark, ask the Lord to put someone in your path who might like to climb aboard and travel with us. One invitation could open the door to a life-changing journey for them. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll be here saving you a seat for next time.
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